Date of Submission

Spring 2021

Academic Program

Film and Electronic Arts

Project Advisor 1

Ben Coonley

Abstract/Artist's Statement

"Fuse" is a dance film that follows a bored and lonely high-school-aged kid who, while sitting and listening to music in his building’s communal backyard after a hard winter’s day, suddenly finds himself witness to his neighbors breaking into a joyous, enrapturing, dreamlike dance sequence set to the music in his earphones, taking place all over the building—windows, balconies, rooftop and all. After a long build—including a magical changing of the seasons—and an exhilarating climax (which he takes part in), the kid ends up right where he started, but with a smile on his face. The film's title is in reference to the Jazz Fusion music which the dance is set to, as well as to the social, spiritual, and cultural fusion which all the characters take part in as the piece progresses. The music is an original 3-part fusion piece, with each part primarily influenced, respectively, by jazz-funk, Afro-Cuban, and big-band swing. All parts however have heavy fusion elements and influences of all three styles (partly because all three styles have influences of each other to begin with). Each part, generally speaking, increases in intensity, dreaminess, and unfamiliarity (i.e temporal and stylistic distance from modern American popular music). The style of dance generally reflects the musical genre of each section, but not strictly so. As the piece progresses, the dance gets increasingly complex and cohesive--beginning with all the characters soloing in their own apartments, and ending with everyone dancing perfectly in synch together in the backyard.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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